President's Leadership Fund Honors Five Aztecs
Recipients of the PLF Awards for Faculty and Staff Excellence represent the broad diversity of ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» research and community engagement programs.
What do foster youth, alumni, cell phones, biofuel research and sintering have in common? The five topics highlight the work of this yearβs recipients of President's Leadership Fund Awards for Faculty and Staff Excellence.
This year's recipients
Five faculty and staff members were honored this year, including:
- Tammy R. Blackburn, associate director, ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» Alumni Association
- John Love, professor, ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» Department of Chemistry
- Eugene Olevsky, professor, ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Jessica Robinson, assistant director, Consensus Organizing Center, and lecturer, ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» School of Social Work
- Mahasweta Sarkar, assistant professor, ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
These five recipients were chosen by a small group of partners in the President's Leadership Fund from a qualified pool of outstanding nominees. In addition to the recognition of their contributions to ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³», each will receive a $5,000 award with only one restrictionβit must be reinvested in their important work at San Diego State.
Reinvesting awards
While Love, Olevsky and Sarkar noted that the awards would go towards their ongoing research or provide support for graduate students working in their labs, Robinson plans to use the money to support , while Blackburn will use the funds to integrate the lifetime membership program with the ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» Guardian Scholars program.
βThese recipients exemplify the innovation and excellence the President's Leadership Fund was created to support,β ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» President Stephen L. Weber. βThey advance our university through contributions that enrich the student experience and deepen our engagement with our community.
βWith this recognition, we applaud their work in building new partnerships around the world and attracting talent and resources to our emerging urban research university.β
About the Presidentβs Leadership Fund
The (PLF) was established in October 2002 to provide ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³» with the flexible resources to respond quickly to strategic opportunities, pursue innovation and reward excellence.
Establishing the President's Leadership Fund Awards for Faculty and Staff Excellence was a natural evolution of the PLF's work to encourage and reward excellence. In its first eight years, the PLF has invested upwards of $4 million in more than 160 new or existing initiatives.
